Faithful Fridays Two: Lamentations

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Ok, I am well aware that today is Saturday, lol...I got slammed with the sort-of-annual sinus/ ear infection Thursday night and was pretty well a slug yesterday.  The antibiotic is kicking in, though, so hopefully I will be un-slimey-ifed enough to go to work by Monday.

Fortunately, this weeks' book is short.  Unfortunately, I used the most obvious passage last time I did the Faithful Friday thing, so this week's choice is a little more...obscure.

Why should any living man complain when punished for his sin?  Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.  - Lam 3:39-40, NIV84

We are a little more...circumspect...in our language today and are hesitant to pronounce any negative situation as 'punishment'.  And, perhaps, rightfully so.  It's a fallen world and bad stuff happens to good people.  Just ask Job.   And I think most of the time our 'bad stuff' isn't so much a punishment as it is just...consequences.  Because to be disobedient is to deliberately remove oneself from God's protection.

If you're in God's Will for Your Life (that just reads as if it should be capitalized.  And I'm not being snarky here...I think everyone, deep down, knows whether or not you are trying to pursue what God wants you to do or whether you're sidestepping what you know to the the right thing with some kind of rationalization that 'I'm only young once' or 'This won't matter in the long run' or 'I'll just repent later' or some other self-talk.  I'm talking about making hard decisions based on walking in what you know of God's character and the instructions he gave us.  Anyway.)  the enemy has to come THROUGH that to get to you.  But...if you wander out of that sphere, then basically there's nothing to stop the enemy from taking pot shots at you whenever he chooses.  So...punishment?  Or consequences?  Does it matter?

Sin basically is deciding my way is better than God's way and then acting on it. It's what Eve did with the fruit in the garden, it's what Cain did with Abel in the field, it's what Achan did  in the battle for Jericho, it's what Saul did when Samuel was delayed and again when he was supposed to obliterate the Amalekites, it's what David did with Bathsheba and later Uriah and even later when he counted the fighting men, it's what Ananias and Saphira did when they lied about how much of the price of land they gave  (That wasn't about the amount at all...it was their money and they could have kept some without sinning...but they lied to make folks think they were more generous than they actually were.  It was the lying that got them).  Sin is what happens when I consider myself my ultimate authority.

And consequences...at the very least...and ultimately, if there is not repentance, punishment...is what follows sin.  That's for God's children, y'all.  Those who have rejected him will end up with the wages that sin pays.

So...that 'examine our ways' thing means to look for those things in which we have deceived our own selves into thinking something that goes against the Laws of God is ok. It means taking an honest look at ourselves and our choices.  

And repent and return, if the self-check shows that we have wandered away.